UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has told BBC that the Russian-Belarusian joint military exercise Zapad 2017 (West 2017) are designed to provoke the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, Peeblesshire News reports.
A country invented as part of military exercises in Belarus has caught the imagination of locals, who have created a foreign ministry, flag, history and even its own Wikipedia page for the fictional nation, according to BBC.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko believes that the Kremlin could provoke a hot phase of the war, president’s speaker Sviatoslav Tsegolko quoted the head of state as saying Monday.
Lithuania will deploy its observers to the Russian-Belarusian joint military exercises "Zapad -2017" (West-2017), which will be held on September 14-20, according to Delfi.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak says the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has envisaged measures in case of the invasion of Russian troops amid the Russian-Belarusian West-2017 military exercises, which are to be held on September 14-20, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to gain an opportunity to use air defense systems on Belarus borders with the European Union and Ukraine, that’s according to a corresponding bill he submitted to the State Duma, according to the Russian parliament’s website.
Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko says the Russian Federation could create advanced bases for its weapons and military equipment in Belarus under the guise of the West-2017 joint military exercises, according to LIGA.net.
The Latvian National Armed Forces (NAF) are ready for possible provocations during the West-2017 Russian-Belarusian military exercises, according to the Ministry of Defense of the country, Delfi reports.
Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus Ihor Kizima said that he had attended the meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, where the latter assured that there would not be any military aggression against Ukraine from the territory of Belarus.
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko assured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the large-scale Russian-Belarusian strategic exercises West-2017 near the Ukrainian border would not turn into a military invasion, Poroshenko said Friday while visiting the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, an UNIAN correspondent reports.